Southern History Book of the Month: In the Path of the Storms: Bayou La Batre, Coden, and the Alabama Coast

by Mary Anne Ellis, Southern History Department, Central Library

In the Path of the Storms: Bayou La Batre, Coden, and the Alabama Coast
Frye Gaillard, Sheila Hagler, and Peggy Denniston

After several years of relatively tranquil weather during hurricane season, Harvey and Irma have served as brutal reminders of what an active season can do to our coastal areas and islands. In the Path of the Storms is a look at the devastation along the Alabama coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and focuses on the communities of Coden and Bayou La Batre.

Famous for its annual “Blessing of the Fleet,” Bayou La Batre has had plenty of hard experience with storms; nevertheless, Katrina took a heavy toll on the residents:

In the warm, open waters, it [Katrina] reached the status of a Category 5, sending a massive storm swell surging toward the coast. On August 29, 2005, the water came ashore in Bayou La Batre, and in the lore of that place, there were suddenly new stories of terror and survival. Sophol and Chandra Ngam remembered the steady rise of the flood, filling their houses, and still it wouldn’t stop. They waded ashore as the water kept coming, and kept getting deeper, and they knew that soon they would have to swim. But they didn’t know how, and neither did most of their seven children. They began to call out, “No can swim! No can swim!” and finally Ralph Harbison, a neighbor and volunteer fireman, appeared with a boat and carried them to safety.

The nearby community of Coden was likewise devastated, with flood waters forcing the residents from their homes. As a high school student, Coden resident Amber Hill wrote a haunting description of life in the aftermath of a natural disaster:

There was no running water, no gas, no power, and no way of keeping cool . . . My parents and I could not bathe and there was nothing to eat. We nearly starved . . . but food wasn’t our only concern. We had no place to call home anymore. Instead, we were forced to sleep in our old home where mold had begun to grow on the walls. Toward the end of the second week, I couldn’t hold back the tears.

It came as a big surprise to me to find out that Coden and the Bayou have large Asian communities, especially Vietnamese and numerous Cambodians who fled the murderous regime of the Khmer Rouge in their native country. Catastrophe is nothing new to them. Koan Ang, a teacher’s aide in the Mobile County school system, recollects that she and her family escaped from Cambodia when her daughter was only fifteen days old, and that affects her response to life after Katrina:

Some still live in FEMA trailers, even after all this time. But I feel we will still keep going and build back this place. In Cambodia, I lost forty-two people in my family during the war. It was a true killing field—forty-two killed in one night. My sister, brother, nephew, all killed in one night. I was in the hospital. I could not control myself. I had lost too much for one time, and it broke my nerves. But I am fine right now.
What problems we have now, we have to compare them to that.

In the Path of the Storms is a sobering reminder of how quickly lives can be changed—or wiped out altogether—but it’s also a testament to courage and the spirit of communities that pick up the pieces and go on.

For further information:
Bayou La Batre and the Blessing of the Fleet
Bayou La Batre: Stories of a Seafood Town
Coden and Bayou La Batre after Katrina
Hurricane Safety Resources
“Remarkable” 2017 Hurricane Season